I love that I finally have a system in place when prepping for weddings and post-wedding workflow.  I’ve learned from Zach and Jody Gray that systems are necessary to remain organized and to improve speed when preparing for a wedding or preparing to edit and deliver a wedding, so I decided to share my top 5 must haves that help my wedding workflow.

In no particular order:

1- Black Rapid Camera Straps

I prefer the Black Rapid straps over the strap that comes with the camera for a couple of reasons.  One, it’s a longer strap that allows my camera to swing across my body, so I feel that it distributes the camera weight a little better.  Two, I prefer not to use the strap that comes with the camera because it’s a walking advertisement for the type of camera that I own and I would prefer not to do so. Three, it releases from the camera pretty easily (it screws into the bottom of the camera), so that if I just want to use the camera with my Herringbone Hand Strap I can do so without the strap being in my way.  The one con that I’ve heard about is that the strap can sometimes unscrew itself, which can be a potential disaster if the camera comes loose and hits the ground.

2- Lexar Professional Work Flow Card Reader

My multi-bay card reader was one of the best investments I’ve made in the past year to speed up my workflow.  With this card reader I can import up to 4 cards at one time versus having to upload photos one by one.  I recommend this card reader to any and every photographer out there!

3- Photo Mechanic

For the longest time, I didn’t understand the hype around Photo Mechanic.  I mean, I just thought it was another piece of culling software and that I was doing fine with culling in Lightroom.  I finally decided to try it out after hearing about how one of the photographers that I look up to uses it.  Photo Mechanic has been used in the news world so fast due to the turn around time that sports photographers need to get highlight images posted.  Adding this to my workflow has improved my speed tremendously!  I love how fast it renders previews of my images so that I can determine if it’s a keeper or not. I can cull a wedding in a matter of minutes when it has previously taken me hours!

4- Lightroom

I have a copy of Lightroom on each computer that I use for my business.  It’s light years above Photoshop when it comes to editing photos quickly.  I usually only edit photos in Lightroom, unless additional edits are needed and that is done in Photoshop (i.e. blemishes, removing distracting elements in a photo, etc.). Lightroom has also helped me define and stay consistent with my editing style.

5- Eneloop Batteries

I shoot off camera flash for my wedding receptions so I burn through batteries pretty quickly.  It was becoming very expensive to replace batteries as often as I needed to, so when my dad gave me a few packs of these batteries I was grateful .  I charge these after each wedding with my Energizer Recharge Charger, so that I am ready to go for the next event!

So, while I use many products when shooting, these are just a few I wanted to share today and because every post deserves a photo, here you go!